Sources say the BJP chief will meet Mr Thackeray around 6 pm at his home 'Matoshree'.

The BJP chief is in Mumbai for a "Sampark for Samarthan" or mass contact programme, one of his outreach efforts ahead of the 2019 national election.

The Sena has been attacking the BJP in its mouthpiece Saamana. "The country is in a state of mind that it can accept the Congress or (Janata Dal Secular's HD) Deve Gowda but not PM Modi and Amit Shah," said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut in a trenchant editorial.

"The Shiv Sena is the biggest political enemy of the BJP. The Sena's radical Hinduism would prove problematic for the BJP," he wrote in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

Raut also accused the BJP of using its resources to defeat the Sena in Palghar while "staying in power with the Sena's help."

Referring to the BJP's setbacks in bypolls in other states - mainly Uttar Pradesh where it lost its third parliamentary seat, Kairana, this year Raut wrote that "the bypoll results indicate the beginning of the BJP's downfall."